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Google confirmed firing 28 employees after April 16, 2024, sit-ins at offices in New York, Sunnyvale, California, and Seattle. The Associated Press later reported that at least 20 more workers were dismissed, putting the reported total above 50. Google said the firings were for workplace-rule violations and disruption; workers said they were retaliation for opposing the company’s Israel cloud contract. The larger count is attributed to reporting and worker representatives, not a personnel total independently confirmed by Google.
What happened at Google’s April 2024 sit-ins
On April 16, 2024, Google employees and supporters staged sit-ins at company facilities in New York City, Sunnyvale and Seattle. In Sunnyvale, demonstrators entered the office area of Google Cloud chief executive Thomas Kurian and displayed signs calling on Google to drop Project Nimbus. In New York, protesters gathered in a common area with a banner identifying their action as a sit-in against the project. Several demonstrators were arrested after refusing to leave, according to contemporaneous reporting. Google put some participants on administrative leave or cut off their access to company systems before dismissals followed.
The demonstrations were part of a campaign called No Tech for Apartheid, which had opposed Google’s and Amazon’s work with Israel for years. Protesters argued that the cloud and artificial-intelligence infrastructure could support Israeli government or military operations, surveillance and other systems connected to the war in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories. Those are claims by workers and critics; the precise operational uses of Nimbus services are disputed.
Why the reported firing count is more than 50
Google initially announced that it had terminated 28 employees after the sit-ins. Several days later, the Associated Press reported that Google had fired at least 20 additional workers, citing the group representing the workers. That brought the reported total to more than 50. The workers’ campaign has also used the “Fired 50” name.
The distinction matters: 28 was Google’s initial confirmed figure; the higher total came from subsequent reporting and worker representatives. It should not be treated as a final, independently verified count. Nor does the total establish that every person dismissed took part in the sit-ins; Google said its investigation identified employees involved in disruptive activity.
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What Project Nimbus is—and what is disputed
Project Nimbus is a cloud-computing and AI infrastructure contract involving Google, Amazon and the Israeli government. Announced in 2021, the deal was reported at the time as worth about $1.2 billion. That figure describes the reported original contract value, not necessarily its current value. The project includes cloud infrastructure intended to keep data in Israel and meet local security and regulatory requirements.
Google has described Nimbus as commercial cloud services for Israeli government ministries, not a project for highly sensitive, classified or military workloads. Critics point to reporting on Israeli government documents and a draft 2024 contract indicating that the Defense Ministry sought expanded access to Google Cloud services and automation technologies. That evidence informs the protesters’ concerns, but it does not establish that Google directly develops weapons or operates Israeli military systems. The contract reporting and Google’s stated description should be read as competing evidence about the project’s scope and potential use.
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Google’s explanation and the workers’ account
Google said the employees were dismissed for disrupting work, obstructing access, violating workplace policies and making colleagues feel unsafe—not because of their political views. The company said some protesters blocked access to facilities or workspaces, and indicated that it would investigate further and take additional action where warranted. Google’s account frames the matter as a workplace-conduct issue, rather than a punishment for opposing the contract.
The workers and the Alphabet Workers Union described the actions as peaceful collective advocacy tied to the terms and ethical consequences of their work. They argued that Google retaliated against employees organizing over Nimbus, said that some people who were not direct participants were swept into the dismissals, and criticized the company for not meaningfully addressing their concerns.
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This is not simply a dispute over whether employees may express political views at work. Workers’ labor-law argument is that collective advocacy about workplace conditions and the use of their labor can be protected concerted activity. Google’s argument centers on occupation of work areas, disruption, obstruction and failure to follow instructions. U.S. labor protections do not automatically cover every form of workplace protest: the purpose, conduct, location, instructions received and employees’ status can all matter. The available accounts do not establish that either side has been legally vindicated.
How the Google actions fit the wider 2024 protests
The Google sit-ins took place at three offices—not at Google locations across the country. The phrase “protests spread across the nation” better describes the broader U.S. context in spring 2024: campus encampments, demonstrations over the war in Gaza, employee activism and disputes over companies’ ties to Israel. Keeping those events distinct avoids suggesting that the same Google occupation occurred nationwide.
Google employees had previously protested Project Maven, a U.S. Defense Department effort involving analysis of military drone video. In 2018, Google said it would not renew Maven and later set limits on some military AI work. The comparison helps explain the company’s history of internal activism, but Maven and Nimbus involved different contracts, facts and company policies. The Nimbus firings showed a more confrontational phase in Google’s response to internal political and labor disputes; they do not, by themselves, establish a change in the company’s position on military technology.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Labor complaints and the 2025 lawsuit
In late April 2024, fired or suspended workers filed allegations with the National Labor Relations Board, arguing that Google had unlawfully disciplined or terminated them for protected concerted activity. A labor complaint or charge is an allegation, not a final agency decision.
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In April 2025, workers filed a federal lawsuit, Anderson et al. v. Google LLC, alleging discrimination, retaliation and related claims tied to opposition to Nimbus and alleged mistreatment of Arab, Muslim and Palestinian employees. The complaint records the plaintiffs’ allegations; filing it does not prove them. The available material here does not establish a final ruling on the specific firings, an order for reinstatement or damages, or a finding that Google violated labor law.
The dispute therefore remains a collision among employee organizing, workplace rules, political advocacy and the responsibilities of technology companies supplying general-purpose cloud infrastructure to governments. Its central questions—what Nimbus services were used for, whether workplace rules were applied consistently, and whether the terminations violated labor protections—cannot be settled by either the company’s statements or the workers’ allegations alone.
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